Our adventures, stories and pictures.

birthdays

We’d hoped to organise a party in North America, but for a variety of reasons it seems that was not meant to be. Instead, we had a small party with our friends Tom and Alex – two Brits who moved here the same time we did.

We got up super early on the 24th and busted into his room singing Happy Birthday like good parents do. We had three surprises for him that day, and I quickly donned a coat and shoes and ducked out to get to work on the first.

Why are you making those noises?

Sarah met up with me a few hours later. We’d all gone by boat to the Taronga Zoo! Normally we get there in the afternoon, but having got up a little bit earlier, we were able to catch a lot of the animal shows and see a lot of the things that are normally closed by the time we get there.

Kookaburra

Lazy Kangaroo

Petting zoos in Australia have emus and wallabies instead of sheep and goats. X got to pet this old girl as part of the trip.

Red Panda!

My what a HUGE tongue you have!

We’ve been to the zoo a few times with X and each time he is more ccognisant of what’s going on. So this time round we decided to surprise him with a little extra interaction. If you get there early enough, you can get a ticket to feed the Giraffes at the zoo. The money goes to extending the conservation areas around the parks, and the giraffes certainly seem to enjoy the attention.

X was definitely a little hesitant of the whole thing. When we gave him the carrot he was super excited to have something to nibble on and started to stick it in his mouth, and then this giant purple tongue came out of nowhere and stole it from him. This was his “hey, that’s my carrot!” face.

After the giraffe, we had a final treat for him. Birthday Cake!

Want to touch the fire….

For his first year, we have tried to keep him away from sugar as much as possible. This can be hard at times, seeing as Australian baby food comes in flavours like chocolate custard, mango cream, and vanilla dream. Other than a few licks of ice cream, I think we mostly managed to pull it off. So, this was his first real taste of processed sugar, and he was definitely a fan. Tom figured he looked as if he was eating Wizard Food for the first time, and not just strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.

More Please!

Afterwards we exchanged a few gifts: a musical barnyard book from Tom and Alex, some new clothes, books and crayons from Mom and Dad, and some duplo (which was also kinda for me). We finished off the day with drinks at the opera bar, underneath the opera house. While it was a winter birthday for him, it was still sunny and warm enough for the patio.

It’s crazy to think how much he’s changed in a year. I the last 12 months he was born, had his first taste of food, moved across the world, visited four countries, learned to crawl, to stand, to eat, to talk, and to turn on (and off, and on, and off, and …) the TV. He’s doubled in size, grown four teeth, and lots of hair, and still manages to pull off adorable most of the time. When I think back to what I’ve managed to do in a year, this kid puts me to shame.